The state Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in two cases in which amusement machine companies, a gaming software developer, and firms that market long-distance phone and Internet services seek to overturn a 2010 law banning video sweepstakes machines as a form of gambling.

The sweepstakes machines have cropped up since the state outlawed video poker machines outside the western North Carolina Cherokee Indian reservation in 2007. Patrons buy Internet or phone time that gives them the opportunity to uncover potential cash and prizes with mouse clicks on a computer screen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and lea...